Outcomes

Semantics, marketing and social media trends seem to somehow rule each day. It might be something oriented to draw out the athlete hidden deep within us. Maybe it is a phrase intended to bring out the leader that resides next to that athlete.  Perhaps it is self defense tactics involving toxic environments and others.  Or, a call to reveal one’s true character. 

Now there isn’t anything off about any of these approaches.  Not that they do not have relevance, sustainability or the potential for permanence.  There is value to each and everyone. From my perspective, it is just that for some reason they appear to be targeted to a very specific group.  And as such, the potential impact of what is being presented, said and promoted becomes so focused on one thing, that other ancillary concerns and needs are totally missed. 

So as a football coach a year ago,  E + R = O was presented to the program. At first glance,  some apparent math equation that in our circumstance happened to be geared towards our game and conduct within it. But then, I came across this approach within some of the corporate social media I read and write about. And even more so in things that involve leadership, character, achievement.  

You name it, Mr. Kight’s foundation for making the life you choose is everywhere

But now, I have started to see it from an entirely  different perspective.  

You can gear up things that apply to very specific targets.  To become known for a prowess that speaks to a very specific audience.  Perhaps some  KPI.  Or, since you have developed these tactics that have the potential to embrace a much wider group, perhaps it can be presented as that first, then as a dollar oriented approach. 

The event plus response equals outcome viewpoint literally applies to all aspects of life. Not just athletics, business, self improvement or any other interest of the moment.  

It goes far deeper than all the above.  

Imagine you encounter an event in your life that beckons an urgent response.  Maybe it is a health issue.  A relationship challenge.  Spiritual collapse. Alcohol or drug abuse. A self destructive behavior you somehow made your own. Loneliness.

All in their own right, entities  not designed to fit a marketing driven collection of buzz words, phrases and such designed to attract likes, clicks and impressions. But rather, to fit into something with an altogether different gravity and mass. 

An event you now face, plus the response you choose to make and how that will eventually create the outcome sought. 

We all face them.  We all need to respond accordingly.  And then, we need to either accept the outcome, go back and amend our response and continue this assessment until the event has been overcome.  

Or just accept things and call in the dogs. 

Events are never trumpeted, announced or heralded.  Well, not usually. And the tenor of these occurrences should not determine the fealty of the way things are encountered, embraced or enjoined.  

We need merely to respond in a fashion that produces what we ultimately desire to achieve.  

Whether we acknowledge it or not.  

So, while an event prescribes a certain response, it may not be within our grasp to do so at this moment.  It may be timing, circumstance, presence, placement or an unwillingness to accept the need for change.  A stubbornness born of seeing things through your well worn rose colored specs. 

Though response to an event will ultimately equate to an outcome, events and responses may be ill equipped to produce if not properly discerned, honestly approached and embraced with an element of surrender.  

If you can somehow adhere to this equation at this level, all other situations will follow suit, providing the genuine, warranted and desired outcome.  

Remain present in the event.  Be honest with  yourself about the response that is required.  

And make the outcome a source for life. 

Target.

At first glance, opportunity may appear as a singular solid mass.  Yet,  its construction actually consists of multiple, interrelated layers. One overlapping the other, each oriented in such a way as to require a certain measure of patience, enduring persistence and a committed effort to seek what lay beneath the outer surface, each layer below and finally what resides at its core.

Now some may be content to just run with what is obvious and readily apparent from the outside.  Finding enough satisfaction and a modicum of accomplishment in getting what they happen to get with minimal risk and exertion. Choosing a course of expediency over what is  really being offered.

But those that are willing to fully invest in the moment, discern the truth of the situation and embrace opportunity in full stand to gain so much more. Not merely as a possession.  But more so an avenue that can perpetually lead them directly to what they can become. A chance to divine one’s purpose, experience lasting personal achievement and pursue a path towards excellence. 

On more than one occasion over the course of coaching football, we came to speak of “wearing a target”.  How we would be pursued during a specific game, rivalry or over the course of a season as a whole.  The inevitable by-product of developing a positive attitude, winning approach, culture of accountability, team and program. In some cases by making history and simply causing a lot of people to wonder just where we came from.

This too might occur in a professional setting.  Corporate rivalries, competitors and the like that see you as the largest obstacle to their success in the market.  Then one level lower, maybe there are those you work with or against in sales or customer service that place that target on the back of your polo. 

Regardless of the situation, there are several ways you can choose to look at this circumstance or scenario. Most of which may backfire. 

But in reality, there is but one way  to see it for what it genuinely is; opportunity.  

Not so much  of the singular solid mass variety. But more so a construction consisting  of multiple, interrelated layers. 

Well suited for who you are and what you are built to become.

Unfortunately, the idea of wearing a target can be easily misconstrued as a hindrance.  Unwanted pressure.  Excess weight.  One more thing to worry about.  Thoughts, then words and eventually actions that dismisses, distorts and disparages  the true opportunity that lay beneath each  layer.

Wearing a target whatever your vocation is a badge of honor.  

The medallion that signifies selfless effort, an absence of ego, unyielding commitment, resolute faith and  a boundless passion for the mission. An insignia that tells all where you came from, what you made yourself into and where you can ultimately go.  

From a football perspective, each and every scrimmage and game enjoined during a season could be viewed as a conference championship.  Each opponent’s opportunity to take aim at the target. Take you down. Show the state they beat the champ. To be as good or better than you for one Friday night.  A prime example of seeing opportunity as only a singular mass. 

In the work world, each effort to expand your presence in the market may be viewed in similar fashion.  The sales call intended to turn a customer your way or gain entry into a new market will be known.  The manner in which you covet a customer to the extent that you make them the center of your efforts ripples back to the competition.  

And yet, while they focus their thoughts, words and deeds to try to be as good as or better than your team, your company or you,  you will still be working towards a much more significant and singular opportunity: becoming the  best version of yourself and all you were intended to become at this particular moment. 

From a football sense a  layer or two beneath might be the chance to gain mass, increase strength and add speed,  Peel back another may find you reaching that team GPA level, increasing community service times two and supporting every other athlete, artist, performer and scholar on their field of play as they do on yours.  

From a professional sense, maybe you gain attention, develop a new relationship, explore how you might benefit one another and begin to work together.  Multiple layers within that one instance.  Multiply that by infinity as your thoughts, words and deeds spread through the market.  

Embracing the appellation of “wearing the target” need not distract you from your goals and desires.  It simply means that how you go has obviously inspired others to pursue being like  you.  

You should  appreciate that sense of affirmation.  

But at the same token, it is meant to seriously fuel your engines to take things even further.  

So let them apply the target and chase.  

Be it with all you have. 

And then? 

Lead the way.

Respond

Far too often, choices somehow become disposable. 

They can begin as a scattered collection of thoughts. And over time, they might become articulated in some lofty language meant to impress others, divert attention or hide one from the truth. 

Then just as fast as they appeared, choices can simply vanish. Too often,  bringing with that event,  a sense of relief. Rather than the embrace of achievement.  

Unless a choice is elevated into a commitment, it is nothing. It serves no purpose. Has no lasting meaning. 

Events always and in all ways lead to response.  And those responses lead to outcomes. 

But only the commitment found in those responses born of those events can give true form to those thoughts, words and deeds. 

The absolute foundation for achievement. 

Choice is not disposable.  

Ever. 

It is the only true basis for engaging in the ongoing opportunities found in all events.  

That can lead to the outcome of ongoing success. 

How we see it.

Why we try. 

So we can achieve what we desire.

Location

In a conversation at work some time ago, the phrase “location, location, location” came into play.  

Nothing to do with its inherent real estate connotation. But more so how one maintains a sense of presence in the real estate they happen to occupy in this moment. Not just where they find themselves.  But more to the point, how they find themselves where they are now. Not in a week, month or year.   

Now.  

‘Cause when it comes down to it, if you aren’t here, then you cannot access what is to be gained from the moment.  Not that each moment is going to be an epiphany.  That is never the case.  It is just that each moment has within it the capacity to become an epiphany.  

A surprise.  Never expected.  Life changin’.  

An epiphany.  

It seems to me that there is a human tendency to believe that moments that seem  a mistake, reflect a poor decision or turn out to be a failure are lost causes.  A chance lost.  Something not meant to be. Better left behind than kept, discerned and understood. 

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Everything we encounter in our lives has meaning.  A purpose.   A reason to be.  And yet because things are not precisely what we imagined, we think all is lost.  Wasted effort, commitment and direction.  

We choose to  leave the moment and  place ourselves where we wish to be.  A place begotten without the sacrifice, effort, discipline and effort. Then when we awake, and find ourselves at what seems to be the ultimate conclusion, we deflect, ignore, blame and avoid the outcome. 

“Location, location location” has nothing to do with where you are.  It has everything  to do with being fully present where you are right here, right now.  So that you can someday, become all that you were meant to be. 

If you have the presence of mind and soul to capture and keep those multiple instances of missteps, defeat and failure, then you can access the wherewithal to maintain a presence in those moments yet to come. 

And better yet? 

Those made just for you.

Endurance

At the age of 19, Louis Zamperini  qualified for the 5000 meter run, earning  a place in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany.  

In 1941, with the world in the throes of global conflict, Louis enlisted in the United States Army Air Force, earning  a commission as a second lieutenant and deployed to the Pacific as a bombardier.  While on a search for a lost aircraft and crew  in 1943, mechanical difficulties caused Zamperini’s  plane to crash into the Pacific Ocean,  850 miles west of Oahu, Hawaii,  killing eight of the eleven men aboard. 

With little food and no water, Zamperini, Russell Philips and Francis McNamara subsisted on rainwater and small fish eaten raw.   After 33 days at sea, McNamara succumbed to their ordeal, leaving Zamperini and Philips alone and adrift. 

On the 47th day, Zamperini and Phillips reached the Marshall Islands and found themselves captive of the Japanese Navy. Following 42 days of internment there, they were transferred  to the Japanese prisoner-of-war camp at Ōfuna, then  on to Tokyo’s Ōmori POW camp, and eventually, to the Naoetsu POW camp in northern Japan. 

One particular guard wanted to make an example of the eternally optimistic Olympian Zamperini. “The Bird” – as he was called – dedicated the next two years  to breaking Louis, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually, through verbal and physical cruelty.

Yet Zamperini remained; unbroken.   

What was it that bound him together?  The strength, stamina and training of an Olympic athlete?  

What enabled him to handle both the duress of being lost in the Pacific and the abject terror of internment at the hands of a cruel enemy?   

To find the will to endure.  To exert himself for a long period of time, resisting, withstanding and recovering  from fatigue, trauma and even wounds of the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual nature.

 When Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton left South Georgia Island on December 5, 1914 in a bid to be the first to cross the Antarctic continent, no level of preparation could have anticipated the challenges that would confront he and his crew of 28. 

Disaster struck the expedition early when its ship, Endurance,  became trapped in pack ice and  was slowly crushed. For nearly two months, Shackleton’s team camped on a large, flat ice floe, hoping that it would drift towards Paulet Island, approximately 250 miles  away.  

Several failed attempts to march across the ice led them to encamp  on another floe entrusting  the drift would take them towards a safe landing.  By mid March, Patience Camp was within 60 miles of the island, yet still separated by impassable ice. In early April the floe split, leaving Shackleton no option but to order the crew into the lifeboats. 

Five harrowing days at sea later, the exhausted men landed their three lifeboats at Elephant Island, 346 miles from where the Endurance sank. This would be  the first time they had stood on solid ground for 497 days. Nearly another year would pass before Shackleton and his entire crew could begin their journey back home.  

What was it about Sir Shackelton that continually rallied  him from within despite his expedition’s dire straits?

Talent?  Ability?  

Belief?  

Or  – some quality? 

A nature that allowed  an uncommon level of patience to guide him, enabling  him to remain calm, centered, deliberate,  and on task?

What set them apart is that Zamperini and Shackleton found a way – within themselves – to transcend their circumstances, even though both were captive to unforgiving environments that offered very little to support any form of life.  

They each  possessed a state of mind reinforced by  an unparalleled level of emotional and spiritual resilience.   

Reinforced by a belief in themselves – and others – that grew into something far  more than just a feeling.  

More than perseverance.  

Faith.  

Perseverance squared.  

That point you reach  where  you just “know”. 

That place you get to –  where you can accept, act, move forward and achieve – even the unimaginable  – because deep inside – you just know.    

Being stripped down to their core by their circumstance – whether on the ice or as a POW – did  not mean failure or defeat for Shackleton and Zamperini. 

Nor does it for you. 

For each trying or unforgiving  circumstance we enter, cross and exit  has within it a specific purpose.  

To remove some of your layers.  The veneer that can accumulate over time and diminish  some of your best features.  

And persevering through adversity is how they come to be stripped away.  Revealing  the best that you are – even when you think you are at your worst.   .  

Even as you  find yourself in the midst of a wide, inhospitable expanse or within the  emptiness of confinement, and those moments begin to close in about us, just remember.  

All is not lost.

With some courage, you need not merely drift or be held hostage.   

You can access that transcendent quality that powers your ability to persist.  

Your own will generator. 

To do more  than just simply hang on.  Merely get through it.  Or survive.  

 A level of perseverance that leads you to embrace those unforgiving circumstances.  

To find some way to somehow thrive despite the intensity of the adversity.  

To become more than what you were at the start.  

Because you just know it.